Robust enterprise security software is complex. It often requires installation of specific security software packages at each trusted computer associated with the enterprise, as well as management of various profiles for each of a number of different types of users having differing roles. Furthermore, each server within an enterprise network will typically have a collection of allowed connections external to the network to be managed.
The complexity of enterprise security software increases with the level of security required. For example, in enterprise networks in which data must be secured during intra-network storage and/or transmission, detailed definitions regarding a level of security for each user, types of encryption, permissions, and other policies must be set. Because there are often a large number of computing systems within such an enterprise network, provisioning each system can become so complex as to be time- and cost-prohibitive to install such enterprise security software, or at the very least to exploit its full capabilities. Although network security administrators may find some ways to simplify the deployment of a security solution, for example by creating a template image of security software that can then be customized for each server or endpoint to be provisioned, this still requires each endpoint to be custom provisioned by the network security administrator, which remains time-intensive.
Furthermore, for network security administrators in organizations that are first installing enterprise security software, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to know what specific policies should be created and how to create or deploy such policies within their existing network. Substantial training and weeks, if not months, of deployment/implementation operations are therefore required in many such situations.